Binford's impressive pitching puts Rocks on top

WILMINGTON – Christian Binford put on another pitching performance Friday night that should have left a Frawley Stadium audience wondering how the 21-year-old right-hander ever made it to the 30th round of the 2011 draft.

That's when the Kansas City Royals selected the Hagerstown, Md., resident, and Mercersburg (Pa.) Academy graduate.

Ever since, Binford, who passed up a scholarship to the University of Virginia to sign with the Royals, has pitched like someone with much greater draft-day pedigree.

"I've surprised other people more than myself," he said. "I've been under the radar for my whole life. That's just the way it is. I don't throw hard. I came from a really small high school. Mercersburg, I mean, who's heard of that?"

Binford's seven-inning effort Friday kept the Blue Rocks close enough that their two eighth-inning runs made them 3-2 Carolina League winners over the Lynchburg Hillcats.

Four walks, including a bases-loaded freebie to Cody Stubbs that pushed across the winning run, and Jack Lopez' single keyed the eighth-inning rally as the Blue Rocks improved to 15-17.

It was another positive step in the development of Binford, who was rated as the Royals' 10th-best prospect by Baseball America entering the 2014 season.

"He's getting better and better," Rocks manager Darryl Kennedy said. "His command ... He throws four pitches – all of them for strikes. You never know what you're going to get as a hitter. He has been impressive and he stepped up for us big time tonight."

Binford says his repertoire actually consists of five pitches – fastball, curveball, changeup, slider, plus a two-seamer – and control has been the hallmark of his game. "I just don't light up the radar gun," he said. "It's not in me. I can get it up there every once in a while, but I sit 90, 91. That's what I do and I try to get groundballs. So if I don't have control, I don't have much."

In his first two pro seasons, Binford went 2-3 with a 2.03 ERA at Burlington in the rookie-level Appalachian League in 2012 and 8-7 with a 2.67 ERA at Lexington in the low-A South Atlantic League last year. Across those two stops, he struck out 161 and walked just 29 in 175 innings.

"Everybody thought he was going to go to college and we made an offer he couldn't refuse," Kennedy said.

The step up to high-A Wilmington hasn't knocked Binford off stride. Friday was the third time in six starts he has lasted seven innings. He is 2-1 with a 2.03 ERA and 42 strikeouts, with just seven walks, in 35 1/3 innings pitched.

"I'm just trying to stay consistent," he said. "I just try to keep the ball down and throw strikes . . . I was pretty happy [Friday] other than the one inning [seventh]."

The Rocks inched ahead 1-0 in the sixth inning. Hunter Dozier walked with one out, stole second base and scored on Johermyn Chavez's single.

Lynchburg tagged Binford for two runs in the seventh on Eric Garcia's single, a sacrifice bunt, Will Skinner's RBI triple and Levi Hyams' sacrifice fly. But the Rocks got those two back in the home eighth.

Kennedy liked the discipline Rocks batters showed at the plate that inning.

"That's one of the things we've struggled with, when there are runners in scoring position, we panic and swing at some bad pitches," Kennedy said.

Rock chips

The first 1,000 fans arriving for Saturday's 7:05 p.m. game will receive a Kayla Miller Bobblehead. Miller, the former Ursuline Academy and University of Delaware basketball point guard, become a familiar figure selling merchandise in the stands during Blue Rocks games in recent seasons. ... The Rocks' April 25 rainout against Carolina will be made up in a May 21 double-header at 4:35 p.m. at Frawley Stadium. Both games will run seven innings.